Observation Post 120206

The kiss of death? If I were Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, I'd wrap myself in kevlar and book a berth on a freighter going 'round the the horn. The reason? Doubleduh said publicly that al-Maliki was "the right guy for Iraq." Duck, Nouri. Remember "heck of a job, Brownie" and "fantastic job, Rummy?"

I can't prove it, of course, but I'll bet Bush told al-Maliki privately something quite different than the public message. Especially after the Prime Minister played a little political oneupmanship with the President on the latter's Middle East rounds. The conversation probably started with something like, "Screw with me again, Towelhead, and you'll be facing a Syrian hit squad."

At any rate, a public vote of confidence by Doubleduh seems to be like getting your picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated. You gone, suckah.

Same ship, different rat. Speaking of gone, Stephen Cambone is. As Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, he is DOD's head spook. Here's a snatch of Wikipedia's piece about him:

Cambone was known in the Pentagon as Donald Rumsfeld's "chief henchman". The orders to soften up Iraqi prisoners for intelligence interrogators (both military and private contractors) are said to have come directly from Cambone's office. In a 2006 Counterpunch article, Jeffrey St. Clair reported that Cambone is responsible for intelligence operations like Gray Fox, a kind of sabotage and assassination squad. Several sources report that Cambone has become so hated and feared inside the Pentagon as Rumsfeld's hatchetman that one general joked: 'If I had one round left in my revolver, I would take out Stephen Cambone.' "

Raw Story reported yesterday that Cambone was "looking forward to spending more time with family." However, reporters found the Cambone house (a hardened bunker and two quonset huts on the outskirts of Alexandria, VA) deserted and empty of all furniture and other possessions.

Your tax dollars at work - mission accomplished. Here are some snips from The Guardian (UK)'s "Corruption: the 'second insurgency' costing $4bn a year" by Julian Borger and David Pallister today:

One third of rebuilding contracts under criminal investigation.

The Iraqi government is in danger of being brought down by the wholesale smuggling of the nation's oil and other forms of corruption that together represent a "second insurgency", according to a senior US official. Stuart Bowen, who has been in charge of auditing Iraq's faltering reconstruction since 2004, said corruption had reached such levels that it threatened the survival of the state . . .

. . . Mr Bowen's office has found that the insurgents and militias have also been abetted by US incompetence. A recent audit by his inspectors found that more than 14,000 guns paid for out of US reconstruction funds for Iraqi government use could not be accounted for. Many could be in the hands of insurgents or sectarian death squads, but it will be almost impossible to prove because when the US military handed out the guns it noted the serial numbers of only about 10,000 out of a total of 370,000 US-funded weapons, contrary to defence department regulations . . .

In the Hillah region a defence department contract employee and two lieutenant colonels were found to have steered $8m in contracts to a US contractor in return for bribes. The Pentagon contract employee, Robert Stein, pleaded guilty earlier this year, admitting he and his co-conspirators received more than $1m in cash, help with laundering the funds, jewellery, cars and sex with prostitutes. Stein also admitted that they simply stole $2m from the construction fund, accounting for the money with receipts from fictitious construction companies.

Hillah just happened to be the district Mr Bowen's inspectors examined in depth. It is still far from clear how much reconstruction money has gone missing around the whole country.

A potentially far more serious problem has been the way the US government decided to give out reconstruction contracts. It split the economy into sectors and shared them out among nine big US corporations. In most cases the contracts were distributed without competition and on a cost-plus basis. In other words the contractors were guaranteed a profit margin calculated as a percentage of their costs, so the higher the costs, the higher the profits. In the rush to get work started the contracts were signed early in 2004. In many cases work did not get under way until the year was nearly over. In the months between, the contractors racked up huge bills on wages, hotel bills and restaurants.

According to a Sigir review published in October, Kellogg, Brown and Root (a subsidiary of Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's former company) was awarded an oil industry repair contract in February 2004 but "direct project activity" did not begin until November 19. In that time KBR's overhead costs were nearly $53m. In fact more than half the company's $300m project costs from 2004-06 went on overheads, the audit found.

Iraq also represented a grey zone beyond the reach of the US civil courts. KBR was found to have overcharged the US military about $60m for fuel deliveries, but that did not stop it winning more government contracts.

A California company, Parsons, had its contract terminated this year after it was found to have finished only six of more than 140 primary healthcare centres it was supposed to build, after two years work and $500m spent. However, the contract was ended "for convenience", meaning Parsons was paid in full. In a police college Parsons built for $75m in Baghdad the plumbing was so bad that urine and excrement rained down from the toilets on to the police cadets. Parsons left a sub-contractor to do repairs but in general there is little punitive action that can be taken for shoddy work . . .

Considering the fact that The Doubleduh-Cheney Gang's fundamental purpose in Iraq was to destroy the country, then rip off both the Iraqis and the people of the USA, I'd say they've done a bang-up job. Contractors and their sleazy military co-conspirators have made billions. And as for oil-smuggling, you can be assured that a sizeable chunk of that went into the pockets "on 'our' side".

Mexico: The New Argentina? Greg Grandin at CounterPunch in "Midnight in Mexico" writes:

This is how the Washington Consensus ends: With the president-elect of Mexico Felipe Calderón sneaking off with outgoing Vicente Fox Thursday night to hold a midnight, locked-door inauguration. Fait accompli, the next day the videotaped ceremony was broadcast to the nation. "How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags! What is't you do?" "A deed without a Name," they answered . . .

Once US-backed Cold War military regimes and death squads had violently severed the ties between socialist and nationalist political parties and their working-class and peasant base and allowed a return to constitutional rule, an army of corporate and government-funded U.S. social scientists descended upon Latin America. They advised politicians to move the fulcrum of politics away from mass rallies in the central plaza to televised campaign ads and back-room elite negotiations. They also sold a new brand of democracy, one defined exclusively as the protection of political and economic freedom and the defense of property rights, rather than the achievement of social justice. Such advice was aimed at putting to rest Latin America's populist, egalitarian tradition, which had deep roots in the region's political culture, drawing from Catholic humanism, Rousseauean notions of participatory democracy, and indigenous conceptions of justice and solidarity. "Political democracy," Samuel Huntington lectured Latin Americans in one transitology handbook, "is clearly compatible with inequality in both wealth and income, and in some measure, it may be dependent upon such inequality."

It depends on what you mean by democracy. The success of such a campaign to turn Latin Americans into passive consumers of electoral politics was dependent on the success of the Washington Consensus's economic policies. But the 1990s were a disaster for a majority of Latin Americans. Inequality increased at a stunning pace and millions were thrown into not just poverty but extreme destitution, leading activists across the continent to rebuild alliances between grassroots social movements and political parties and lay the groundwork for today's left resurgence. Popular protests brought down governments in Bolivia and Ecuador, and restored one in Venezuela. Poor people increasingly became involved in politics (Evo Morales is the first Bolivian president to win more than fifty percent in a first-round vote since the country returned to democratic rule in the 1980s, drawing the bulk of support from impoverished rural communities). What is more, a majority of Latin Americans continued to believe that democracy should entail some form of equity and wealth redistribution . . .

But maybe Macbeth's conspiring witches are not the best image to invoke to capture the significance of Calderón's nighttime ritual. Facing hundreds of thousands swearing allegiance to López Obrador, Oaxaca on the brink, and politicians brawling on the floor of Congress, Calderón just announced that he was naming Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña as his Interior Minister, in charge of domestic security. While governor of the state of Jalisco, Ramírez was accused by Amnesty International and others of serious human rights violations, including ordering a brutal crackdown on anti-corporate globalization protesters. A more appropriate way to mark Calderón's inauguration is perhaps Henry V's Dauphin, as he prepares for battle: "Tis midnight; I'll go arm myself."

But it's worse than Guardin reports. One of my indispensable blogs, World War 4, reports:

The Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) has announced the "forced disappearance" of the movement's spokesperso, Cesar Mateos Benitez, and of Jorge Sosa, cousin of its principal leader Flavio Sosa . . .

"It is clear that the PFP [Federal Preventative Police] have not brought tranquility to Oaxaca and the proof of this is the rape of women in the zocalo [central plaza], the robbery of a bank two blocks from where they are stationed, the ransacking of commerical establishments in the historic center, the homicide of a hotel manager, the raiding of houses, the burning of the APPO camp; they are not bringing security to society, they are only assisting those who attack the popular movement," the APPO spokesperson affirmed . . .

APPO reiterated its demand the genocide charges be brought against President Vicente Fox, Ulises Ruiz and the commanders of the PFP; and called for the intervention of international organizations, and called on the PGR [federal prosecutor] to clear up the assassinations committed in the six months of the conflict . . .

Then again, it's even worse than that as the NYC Independent Media Center, NY reported on 11/27:

. . . the preliminary figures that we currently have is that there are 165 political prisoners, tens of disappeared, hundreds hurt and wounded, and many killed as well, though at the moment we cannot confirm . . .

Shades of Argentina. This all speaks for itself, but I am going to speculate that (1) Oaxaca is crawling with Company spooks, (2) Eliot Abrams is sleeping on the couch in his office, and (3) the torturers interrogators at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib are brushing up on their Spanish.

The administration must be pretty upset about South and Central American countries turn to the left, but they gotta be terrified about the possibility of a leftist government on their very border.

Capitol Hill Blues. I'm flabbergasted about "The 'new era of civility' goes on holiday" at Capitol Hill Blue yesterday:

In the spirit of cooperation pledged by both sides to tackle Iraq and other major problems, the newly elected senator from Virginia already has "dissed" the president of the United States in the White House and made it clear he will be his own man no matter what his Democratic colleagues want.

That's about the only way to interpret James Webb's reported disrespectful remarks to President Bush at a White House reception and his boorish behavior leading up to their brief encounter. The former Marine and Navy secretary made it abundantly clear that he wanted no part of having his picture taken with the president although that is the protocol at these affairs and he punctuated that by avoiding the chief executive until Bush caught up with him and asked about his son, a Marine serving in Iraq.

According to press reports, Webb answered the president's polite inquiry by stating that the U.S. has to get out of Iraq. Bush then said that he wasn't asking about that but about the welfare of his son. It was then he was told "that's between me and my boy." Talk about no class. Even cowboy George Allen had more couth than that. Well, so much for the spirit of civility subscribed to by Webb's new colleagues . . .

What??? Be civil to a preznut who's called our Constitution "a piece of paper", given the finger publicly to the American people, put Webb's son and thousands of other Americans in harm's way based on lie after lie? Civil? I'm disappointed Webb didn't kick the foul-mouthed, ignorant, arrogant SOB in the cojones. It's the writer of the story who ain't got no class.

Maybe I was wrong. I'm not afraid to admit when I might have made a mistake. I don't often actually do it, but I'm not afraid to.

Anyway, all the votes are far from in, but maybe I was wrong about Nancy Pelosi. Silvestre Reyes is a better choice than hawk Jane Harman to be Chairman of the House intelligence Committee. Reyes was one of the handful of congresspeople to oppose the Iraq invasion from the beginning.

This isn't France, Prager! Don't any of these idiots read the Constitution? Isn't any elected federal official who ignores it guilty of treason? Get this:

Congressman Faulted for Quran at Oath.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Keith Ellison, who will become the first Muslim member of Congress next month, has offended some conservatives with his plan to use the Quran during his ceremonial swearing-in. The decision by Ellison, D-Minn., to use the Muslim holy book for the ceremony instead of the Bible triggered an angry column by Dennis Prager on the Web site Townhall.com this week.

Headlined, "America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on," Prager argued that using the Quran for the ceremony "undermines American civilization."

"Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible," he wrote. "If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don't serve in Congress."

I'm not sure which America he's talking about. Last time I looked, there are enough religions in this country to keep a thousand choirs singing full time for a century. Actually, anybody as dumb as Prager shouldn't serve in Congress.

So much for the "anonymity" part. The 11^th and 12^th Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous:

Eleven — Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.

Twelve — Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

Lindsay Lohan, her publicist, and the press should be ashamed that Lindsay broke her anonymity.

AA doesn't have any rules or laws. But it does have its Traditions, which have kept AA together and effective since 1935, helping millions of alcoholics stay sober and build healthy lives. I've several times here written about my experience with 12 step recovery. It's one of the reasons I use a pseudonym. AA works, but I've had relapses when I haven't worked it.

Two things:

1. Lindsay doesn't stay sober. She gets in more trouble publicly. Thousands of her fans, many of whom are alcoholic and/or other drug addicted, reject AA because, "See? It doesn't work."


2. Lindsay goes to a meeting. The paparazzi descend. She leaves the meeting. Other AAs, who wish to guard their own anonymity, get their pictures shown in the press.

Hope Lindsay makes it.


Categories: al-Maliki, Stephen+Cambone, DOD, Kellogg,+Brown+and+Root, KBR, Parsons, graft, war+profiteers, Iraq, Oaxaca, "disappeared", Mexico, democracy, James+Webb, Nancy+Pelosi, Silvestre+Reyes, House+Intelligence+Committee, oversight, Dennis+Prager, Keith+Ellison, Constitution, establishment+of+religion, Quran, Bible, Muslim, Islam, oath+of+office, Alcoholics+Anonymous, AA, AA+Traditions, anonymity, Lindsay+Lohan, press

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